Whistler, British Columbia – … : Gibbons Festivals and Events is excited to announce … the inaugural Great Okanagan Beer Festival to be held in Kelowna, May 7-9, 2015. For more information and to buy tickets visit: gibbonsevents.com/great-okanagan-beer-festival

Nestled on the beautiful beaches of Okanagan Lake and right in the heart of the city of Kelowna, Waterfront Park will become host to 40+ breweries, pouring beers from across North America and the World. The Great Okanagan Beer Festival will be a three-day festival, offering patrons a mix of exclusive cask events, beer and brewing seminars, and a beer sampling main event pouring for an estimated 2,500 beer lovers on Saturday, May 9th 2015.

“We were thrilled when Tourism Kelowna reached out to us at the end of last year to ask if we’d host a beer festival in their home town,” says Liam Peyton, the Events Manager at Gibbons. “At Gibbons we believe in really working with the community to create events that increase business, put the experience of the guest first and make people happy.”Having 40+ breweries in attendance means that there will be 90+ beers to try and the sampling event on the Saturday. The festival has a range of craft talent to tempt the taste buds and they’re proud to announce that amongst the exhibitors are Four Winds Brewing Co. (Delta BC), Tree Brewing (Kelowna BC), Bad Tattoo Brewing (Penticton BC), Bomber Brewing (Vancouver BC) and newcomers Moody Ales (Port Moody BC), Barkerville Brewing (Quesnel BC) and Fuggles & Warlock Craftworks (Aldergrove BC).

Local food vendors NC’s Gourmet Grill, The CrAsian Food Truck, Coast Lunchbox and Kelly O’s will also be on site to tempt the taste buds of thousands of festival-goers, although the timing of the event is designed so that afterwards the guests will filter into the surrounding bars and restaurants to continue the celebrations.

There are currently sixteen innovative events on the schedule with more coming, some of the key ones include the Castanet “CASKanet” Series at the new Cannery Brewing Facility in Downtown Penticton (May 6)and Tree Brewing’s Kelowna satellite location, The Beer Institute (May 7), Barkerville Beer Dinner at The Curious Café Artistry and Alchemy Café and the Brewer Highlight Series at the Train Station Pub, Mission Tap House and Black Bear, Kelowna.

Proceeds from the Main Event will go to our license holder, KBAAD (K-Billie Artistic & Athletic Development), a Kelowna based NPO whose mission is to support artist and athlete development with community based events and showcases.

About Gibbons: The Great Okanagan Beer Festival is a Gibbons initiative that launched in 2015 after the success of Gibbons’ Whistler Village Beer Festival, which started in 2013. Established in Whistler in 1979 it’s been Gibbons’ core purpose to make people happy for over thirty years. They run five of Whistler’s most iconic party bars, and have a strong community give back program where they support athletes, artist, musicians, local sports teams and events.

Their expanding beer festival program is led by Liam Peyton, who has been with the company for over five years working his way up from door host to barman, general manager and now holding the title of Gibbons Festival and Events Manager. At Gibbons they look for leaders from within and when Liam came to them with his passion for beer they listened and subsequently launched the first Whistler Beer Festival in 2013. What was once just a dream is now an event that draws thousands of people in the joint celebration of having a few beers in the sunshine.